AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

I used that survey that PF posted mainly to voice my complaints about AXS, but I know they will go unlistened to. Anyways, it inspired me to write a longer list of reasons why AXS is so terrible. I never thought i'd say this, but I want Ticketmaster(/livenation) back.

1. The Waiting Room of Hell.
The premise is to make it fairer, but in reality it does absolutely nothing of the sorts. I think this makes work less stressful for scalpers, who can now open a shitload of tabs in different browsers on their multiple computers and devices. With the amount of browsers/windows they have open on different devices with different IPs, they'll surely get through at least once. They don't have to worry about being quick (or using a captcha bot if they have one). And for non scalpers, it takes away the fairness and in my opinion fun of buying tickets. I love going to the ticket page at 9:58 and continually refreshing and then racing to enter the captcha. Sometimes I get tickets, occasionally I don't, but it's really on me as to whether I select my tickets and enter the captcha quick enough. And if I don't get tickets I can go back and immediately try again. Now, I just sit and wait, and let some "fair" random computer program decide if I get to buy tickets. There WAS a skill to buying tickets, and you certainly got better the more tickets you tried to purchase, but now that's completely gone. Furthermore, the waiting room doesn't give you any sort of time estimate other than "soon" or really vague terms like that. Waiting room, die a painful flipping death.

2. Interface and Usability
Flash? Seriously? I can't believe you designed a website that relies on flash to buy tickets in 2013 (yes, AXS first opened in 2011, but it did not start a wide rollout until this year). That's literally the stupidest thing i've ever heard of. You can write flipping video games with HTML5/javascript etc these days…..yet AEG can't manage to create a ticketing website with non-flash tools. Screw you. I generally keep flash off in my browser, but because of AXS, I have to turn it on each time I want to buy tickets.

The website is all shiny and shit, but it sucks. Why do I have to click on 4 or 5 links to see what time each presale starts. Show me when each one starts on ONE PAGE. Similar to this, why do I have to go to a new page to "Select Tickets". That's just annoying. This is a minor gripe, but still.

Are you kidding me, why can I not switch to the desktop version of AXS on my iPhone?!?!? That's a cardinal sin of web development. You always have to offer a way to switch to the full version!!!!!!

Speaking of the mobile version, why in the world does AXS default to "I would accept split seats". NO! The vast majority of people do not buy single tickets, don't default to that, it makes me click one more button when i am (and the majority of people are) racing to buy tickets.

No iPhone or Mobile app? The ticketmaster/livenation app is great, laughstub has an app, 12 year olds can literally make iPhone apps. Once again, screw you.

I can't view and print tickets from my AXS account? Are you serious? Yes, the tickets were emailed to me at purchase, but what if I lost access to the email account, or deleted the message accidentally, or a magnitude of other things.

3. Reliability
The site crashed during the presale for Depeche Mode a while back. Getting ready for a lot more of this. Imagine what's gonna happen when The Knife announce a show at the Fonda.

4. The Big Scam
In 2010, the United States Department approved the merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation Inc. However, this approval was met with a number of conditions. One of these conditions was for Ticketmaster to license their ticketing software to AEG. Additionally, they suggested that AEG develop their own ticketing site to compete with Ticketmaster/LivenNation. AEG soon partnered with Outboox Technology (http://www.outboxtechnology.com) and began to develop what would become AXS. AEG poised this new ticketing site to be more user friendly and fair, doing away with the shady practices of concealing fees and surcharges as well as charging exorbitant fees. Skip ahead a little bit to when AEG announces AXS. They focus on one point. ONE POINT. Do you know what that one point is? They will not charge an additional fee to download E-Tickets. Yes, that's it, their one "we are a more honorable company" point. Do they still have crazy fees? Yup. Do they not include the fees in the initial price when you're on the first ticketing page? Check.

5. Conclusion
All of this is in vain. Nobody will listen to my legitimate complaints about how terrible AXS is, because AEG does not give a shit about customer service. I know this from firsthand experience, as well as from hearing anecdotes from my friend who is friends with the former CEO of AEG. AXS is significantly worse than ticketmaster/livenation. In my opinion, the Justice Department should not have approved the ticketmaster/livenation merger; it has made things so much worse for the consumer. AEG is not better or more honorable than Ticketmaster/Livenation, they will squeeze every last penny out of fans with their service fees. And they entrap venues into onerous and long lasting contracts. If you don't use AEG ticketing, good luck booking any shows or tours that are promoted by AEG. We all know what happened when Pearl Jam tried to plot a tour without using the ticketing juggernaut--they ended up playing at obscure venues in odd cities that fans couldn't get to, and it just pissed off the fans. They soon scrapped the idea of playing only at venues that use alternative/fairer ticketing sites, because they realized it was impossible.

Now, this is not Goldenvoice's fault directly. They didn't choose to switch their venues over to AXS ticketing, they were forced to, because they are owned by AEG. But I just wish someone over there had said something to AEG corporate, maybe tell them how shit their new ticketing website is and how it can be improved. Even if they did, I doubt AEG would have listened. Oh well, good riddance.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Oh, crap! Didn't realize that abomination would be used for *all* Goldenvoice shows at some point... Thought it was just one of those things where a specific tour used some "off-brand" ticketing service. With all the tickets I have purchased online, the AXS site is the first one where I was not sure when or how to buy tickets...

Didn't get NiN tickets to the Staples Center during the presale because it was not clear that there even was a waiting room. I visited the site several times that morning, didn't see any waiting room. Came back at about 5min before tickets went on sale, and there is a waiting room. Was it clearly marked? No, just some text on the page, floating in the middle of a vast quality of white space--not emphasized, unadorned. And, so, it was not to be. I have no idea when the page started putting people into a waiting room. At least with the Coachella presale, you could not get into the waiting room till the exact time the sale was scheduled to start.

Why, oh why, do people keep trying to do "better" than Ticketmaster by totally sucking? Sheez....

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Originally Posted by TheWatcher

Oh, crap! Didn't realize that abomination would be used for *all* Goldenvoice shows at some point... Thought it was just one of those things where a specific tour used some "off-brand" ticketing service. With all the tickets I have purchased online, the AXS site is the first one where I was not sure when or how to buy tickets...

Didn't get NiN tickets to the Staples Center during the presale because it was not clear that there even was a waiting room. I visited the site several times that morning, didn't see any waiting room. Came back at about 5min before tickets went on sale, and there is a waiting room. Was it clearly marked? No, just some text on the page, floating in the middle of a vast quality of white space--not emphasized, unadorned. And, so, it was not to be. I have no idea when the page started putting people into a waiting room. At least with the Coachella presale, you could not get into the waiting room till the exact time the sale was scheduled to start.

Why, oh why, do people keep trying to do "better" than Ticketmaster by totally sucking? Sheez....

Agreed, it's not very intuitive. In case you're still wondering the waiting room opens up 1 hour before a show goes on sale. However, your spot in the waiting room is random, so if you join 55 minutes before or 2 minutes before it won't make a difference.

And this is not just for all Goldenvoice shows. This is for ALL AEG SHOWS and every show at an AEG owned/run/managed venue. Feel free to check out their hundreds of venues over at http://aegworldwide.com/facilities.

So just to show everyone how shitty this will be...
In a few weeks, this will be the ticketing situation in Los Angeles:

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Originally Posted by ameeps

Agreed, it's not very intuitive. In case you're still wondering the waiting room opens up 1 hour before a show goes on sale. However, your spot in the waiting room is random, so if you join 55 minutes before or 2 minutes before it won't make a difference.
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...Translation: Easier for scalpers to grab all the good tickets

Originally Posted by ameeps

AXS:
Fonda
El Rey
Club Nokia

So I guess it will be harder to get tickets to shows at these venues then.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

The site is indeed awful.

But, it's really only an issue for large venues like Staples and Nokia where good seats are a must. The only time the site will really affect us otherwise is that rare instant/mega fast sellout show at a GV venue. Which really isn't very often. Right? Most of the GV venues are GA. When's the last time you had a really hard time getting a ticket for one of their shows at the smaller venues? When The Weeknd played the Fonda? Local Natives at the El Rey?

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Originally Posted by TallGuyCM

The site is indeed awful.

But, it's really only an issue for large venues like Staples and Nokia where good seats are a must. The only time the site will really affect us otherwise is that rare instant/mega fast sellout show at a GV venue. Which really isn't very often. Right? Most of the GV venues are GA. When's the last time you had a really hard time getting a ticket for one of their shows at the smaller venues? When The Weeknd played the Fonda? Local Natives at the El Rey?

The AXS site is more upsetting in theory than it is in reality.

I hope you're right. I don't go to shows at the Nokia Theater anyway because the layout is so lame, and so far have avoided Staples Center (can't afford decent seats). Had hoped to get GA for NiN @ Staples Center, but failed--would have been my first show there.

There are sometimes shows at the Fonda or Club Nokia that sell out pretty fast. Not so much at the El Rey.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Coachella is a totally different beast in terms of ticketing, with the shipment of the chipped bracelets and the option of payment plans. Not sure that anyone yet knows if AXS has the functionality for those.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Originally Posted by ameeps

I think this makes work less stressful for scalpers, who can now open a shitload of tabs in different browsers on their multiple computers and devices. With the amount of browsers/windows they have open on different devices with different IPs, they'll surely get through at least once. They don't have to worry about being quick (or using a captcha bot if they have one).

You don't understand how IPs work.

Scalpers miss Ticketmaster. Being forced into buying tickets on a payment plan that you don't get a physical copy of the actual ticket itself until only a couple weeks beforehand is brutal for scalpers, hence when each of the last two years the price of Coachella tickets the week of has been face value or lower.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Originally Posted by thelastgreatman

You don't understand how IPs work.

Scalpers miss Ticketmaster. Being forced into buying tickets on a payment plan that you don't get a physical copy of the actual ticket itself until only a couple weeks beforehand is brutal for scalpers, hence when each of the last two years the price of Coachella tickets the week of has been face value or lower.

I'm referring to AXS ticketed events, not Coachella itself. Frontgate has certainly made things worse for people trying to scalp Coachella tickets no doubt about it

And I do understand how IPs work. A bunch of proxies or VPNs and you can have as many IPs as you want.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Sure, except that when you go through a proxy you're adding another hop in your connection to the server that has you in the waiting room and it will significantly affect your connection's reliability to be handled properly by an already overloaded ticketing system. As far as the VPN goes, again, you don't quite understand what you're talking about. Where is the scalper going to get all these other networks for them to VPN into just to try to pull tickets? It's just not cost effective, besides being logistically insane.

Scalpers loved Ticketmaster. I know because I used to work for a ticket broker. Waiting room systems are a nightmare for them.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

On one hand it's like, these are concert tickets and not getting them isn't the end of the world, whatever whatever. On the other though you're 100% right, the AXS site is offensive to me in nearly every way. I'm neither a developer nor a UI designer and I'm pretty sure I could design something a million times less heinous than what they have going on right now. The interface is actively terrible in a way that you really don't encounter much anymore on the internet in 2013.

Admittedly I've never really needed to use it for anything but GA tickets at smaller venues (Regency) but the idea of trying to get good tickets for a Staples Center show through AXS makes me feel like throwing up a little bit. Ticketmaster's fees and behavior are pretty terrible but at least their site doesn't make my eyes bleed.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Aren't VPNs super cheap at this point? Like $3-5 a month? I don't know anything about the technology or methodology of scalping tickets like that but if you're going to turn around and mark these things up by 100% that seems pretty reasonable.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

They probably knew that demand would be crazy and AXS wouldn't be able to handle it (for AFI). Doesn't explain Purity Ring still on TM which went on sale after that announcement. The only show i see on AXS so far that i'm remotely interested in is The 1975.

Originally Posted by guedita

Which healthcare provider will euthanize you the fastest as a service to society?

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Originally Posted by TomAz

How do AXS's fees compare to Ticketbastard?

I think around the same. I know they are on the high side, but maybe slightly lower. Will have a more definitive answer when Warpaint tickets go on sale this weekend. Face value is $25. Blonde Redhead is playing the same venue and those tickets are $25 face with an additional $11.65 of fees on ticketmaster.

Re: AXS ticketing is the worst site ever, welcome to the waiting room

Has anyone tried buying tickets on ticketmaster for surfer blood? The link takes you to axs site for Sparks tickets. I wonder if someone at GV is wondering "why have we not sold any Surfer Blood tickets?"

Originally Posted by guedita

Which healthcare provider will euthanize you the fastest as a service to society?